Sulfonated Poly(<italic style="font-style: italic">α</italic>-methyl styrene-<italic style="font-style: italic">b</italic>-isobutylene-<italic style="font-style: italic">b</italic>-<italic style="font-style: italic">α</italic>-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes

Ying-Ying Zhang; Zhi-Chao Zhang; Hao-Ran Zhao; Xin Yang; You-Guang Jin; Yi-Xian Wu

doi:10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0

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Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2025-08-25

- Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes
- Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes
- 高分子科学（英文） 2025年43卷第9期页码：1537-1548
- Affiliations：
  
  State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
- Author bio：
  
  wuyx@buct.edu.cn
- Funds：
  
  This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21774006).;Electronic supplementary information (ESI) is available free of charge in the online version of this article at http://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0.
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2025-03-05，
  
  修回：2025-04-08，
  
  录用：2025-04-09，
  
  网络首发：2025-06-06，
  
  纸质出版：2025-09-05
- Accepted：
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Zhang, Y. Y.; Zhang, Z. C.; Zhao, H. R.; Yang, X.; Jin, Y. G.; Wu, Y. X. Sulfonated poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) copolymers for advanced proton exchange membranes. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1537–1548

Ying-Ying Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang, Hao-Ran Zhao, et al. Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(9): 1537-1548. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0.
Zhang, Y. Y.; Zhang, Z. C.; Zhao, H. R.; Yang, X.; Jin, Y. G.; Wu, Y. X. Sulfonated poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) copolymers for advanced proton exchange membranes. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1537–1548 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0.

Ying-Ying Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang, Hao-Ran Zhao, et al. Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(9): 1537-1548. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

The sulfonated poly(

-methyl styrene-

-isobutylene-

-methyl styrene) copolymers (S-ASIBS) with the average molar percentage of sulfonic acid (－SO

H) groups (SP) ranging from 3.6 mol% to 14.3 mol% could be synthesized by sulfonation of ASIBS with acetyl sulfate. The hydrophilic ionic channels were generated for proton exchange membranes (PEMs) by ion aggregation of －SO

H groups and microphase separation between hydrophobic polyisobutylene and hydrophilic sulfonated poly(

-methyl styrene) segments in S-ASIBS. The proton transport ability was improved while oxidative stability was decreased by increasing SP in S-ASIBS. The appropriate SP of about 12.7 mol% in S-ASIBS p

rovides the available PEMs with high proton transport ability

low methanol permeability and good oxidative stability. The absence of active tertiary hydrogen atoms along S-ASIBS copolymer chains avoids their attack by peroxy radicals. The residual rates of weight (RW) and proton conductivity (

Rσ

) of S-ASIBS-12.7 membrane after oxidation treatment for 916 h were 84.3% and 88.1% respectively

near to those of commercial Nafion 117 (RW = 87.9%

Rσ

= 90.3%). The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) could be prepared by using various S-ASIBS as PEMs for direct methanol fuel cell. The single cell with S-ASIBS-12.7 MEA behaves high performance of open circuit voltage (OCV) of 548 mV and peak power density (

max

) of 36.1 mW·cm

–2

which is similar to those of Nafion 117 (OCV = 506 mV

max

= 35.6 mW·cm

–2

). To the best of our knowledge

this is the first example of advanced S-ASIBS membrane with high proton conductivity

excellent fuel barrier property and remarkable oxidative stability for promising PEMs.

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references

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Sulfonated Poly(α-methyl styrene-b-isobutylene-b-α-methyl styrene) Copolymers for Advanced Proton Exchange Membranes

DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3356-0

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